Hello, you're listening to Let the Bible Speak. Let the Bible Speak is the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church. Stephen Pollack is the pastor of Free Presbyterian Church of Malvern, Pennsylvania. The church is located at the junction of 401 and Mallon Road. Thank you for joining us today as Dr. Pollack opens the Word of God and lets the Bible speak. Hello and welcome to this latest episode of Let the Bible Speak. I'm very glad you can join us again for this weekly broadcast as we seek to bring the Word of God to bear upon the times, upon our churches, and upon the lives we live as individuals in the presence of God. If you'd like to come and join us for public worship, In Malvern Freepistrian Church we are meeting again at our regular times of 11am and 6pm. Please do get in touch if you'd like some more information regarding our public worship meetings. Our email address is malvernfpc at yahoo.com and we'd certainly love to be able to fellowship with you around the Word of the Lord. Today, we're still continuing our studies in Paul's first letter to Timothy. And so I want to read the first eight verses of chapter 2 of this precious portion of God's word. So 1 Timothy chapter 2, in the verse number 1, the word of God says, I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority. that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour. He will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle. I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. Amen. Let's pray for God's blessing now as we come to study his word. Eternal God, our Father in heaven, help us now to rightly teach and help all the hearers to rightly listen to the word of God. Bless these broadcasts in the heart of all who hear. Help us, O Lord, to seek first your kingdom, and even encourage us today as we contemplate the glories of the gospel of Christ. We pray in his name. Amen. Last time we were together, we noticed that this section in 1 Timothy 2 deals with the matter of the church prayer meeting. And in this section of prayer, we find a profound presentation of the gospel. In verse 1, Paul exhorts Timothy and others to pray for all men. And then as he deals with this matter of praying for all men, he emphasizes that God our Savior will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. The practice of praying for all men is founded on and reinforced by the gospel truth. Good doctrine and good truth are used by Paul to really incentivize the believers to be faithful in the matters of prayer. We are to pray for the salvation of all sorts of men because it is the will of God to save all sorts of men. It is in the character of God and the gospel that we are then encouraged to be faithful in the means of grace of praying for the souls of others. Where does the hope in our praying come from? Well, it comes from God. It comes from God's own revelation of himself. And just in a passing comment, it's worth reminding ourselves that all Christian practice should arise from good Christian doctrine. The Christian life is founded upon gospel truths. Paul tells the Roman believers in Romans 12 verse 1, And so there, he says, it is out of the mercies of God, out of the gospel, that we are then encouraged and compelled to present our bodies. And so it is that the truth of the gospel motivates and stirs up our souls to be faithful in the means of praying for others. Gospel truths will lead to gospel practice. And so, regardless of social trends, when we are convinced of the will of God to save souls, we will then be faithful in praying for God to do his will. That is the nature of prayer. In prayer, we plead the promises of God. And if God has shown himself to be a God who saves, then we can pray out of that reality, praying for God to do what he has promised to do. Churches are neglecting public prayer, and they are neglecting praying together in a corporate sense. And yet, if they would catch a fresh sight of the grace of God in the gospel, it would be my burden that they would then pray much for that grace to be realized in the lives of their friends and families and neighbors. The Church, I believe, will gather for public prayer if they grasp the truths that are before us today. All Christian doctrine must lead to good practice, and as we understand the Gospel, so it must then drive us to prayer. The connection here is very clear. It is acceptable in the sight of God for men to live in godliness and honesty. And out of that we see that God then wills that men be saved because those who are unsaved will not lead lives of godliness and honesty. But it is through the grace of God that men are changed. And so we are to pray for all men. We are to pray that men will live lives of godliness and honesty, because that is the will of God. And the will of God is to have all men to be saved. And so as we work our way through this gospel section in the midst of instruction of prayer, let me begin by noting with you the desire of the Savior. It is the desire of the Savior to save souls. You take the matter of someone who has chosen to take a career in firefighting, or perhaps someone else has taken a career in the nursing profession. The firefighter, when they begin their career, they embark on the very first day with a desire to save people out of fire. That's their burden. They've entered into this profession with a desire to do what's upon their hearts. And so it is for the nurse on the first day in the hospital ward. She wants to be, or he wants to be involved in the helping and the saving of lives in that particular context. And so when God gives himself the title of Savior, he reveals his desire to save. Who he is as our Saviour is a direct reflection of his desire and his will to save souls. 1 Timothy 2 verse 3 calls God our Saviour and then verse 4 begins, who will or who desires to have all men to be saved. Salvation, as a term, implies danger and lostness. We are in danger through our sin. Our sin has taken us from God and we are in peril of everlasting damnation. And thus we see, immediately when we think about this matter of salvation, there is this necessity for all men to be saved. It's necessary for you, dear hearer, to be saved from your sin. Oh, if you're a child of God today, you can praise God as you listen to this broadcast that you've been saved from your sin. But if you're not saved, I'm telling you right now, it is your absolute need that you be rescued and delivered from all of the effects of sin. And yet we have here in these verses a clear presentation of God's desire to save sinners. It says, God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved. Now, sometimes Christians can get in knots regarding the language of this text. Does God desire the salvation of all men without exception, but only decree the salvation of some? Is this not a conflict in God? Well, as we will see here, the term all men has to denote all men in the similar way that the context deals with all men. We are to pray for all sorts of men, verse number 1, and so we are to see that God wills the salvation of all sorts of men in verse number 4. Similarly, in verse number 6, we will see that Christ gave himself a ransom for all, i.e. for all sorts of men. And so in the context, we see that all in 1 Timothy 2 verses 1, 4, and 6 refers to all men without exclusion, not all men without exception. Having said that, however, we should see that in the Bible we see a God who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. We rejoice that God is a God who desires to save any sinner. Sometimes these debates and discussions create heat, but little light. Please note that God desires to save sinners when he had no compulsion to do so. We can pray for the salvation of sinners because God has committed himself to save sinners. Not one soul will ever go to hell trying to be saved, but finding a God who will not receive them. Not one of us will stand in judgment and say to the Lord, I wanted to be saved, but you wouldn't have me. Sinners are desiring to continue in their sin. But God shows himself as a God who is willing to save sinners, though he is not compelled to do so. At the same point, we notice that in the Word of God, this desire to save sinners is seen in God's command for sinners to be saved. In Acts chapter 17, Paul preaches to the heathens in Mars Hill in Athens, and he mentions in his sermon, in the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. God is showing himself to be willing to show mercy to those who repent. He gives the command because it is his desire that sinners repent. I can tell you with the authority of God's Word today that it is God's will that you repent from your sin right now, that you turn from it and run in faith to Christ. In a similar fashion, we see that Paul, as he describes the gospel and their preaching of the gospel, says in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20, now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. Did you hear what he said? God did beseech you by us. It is God who pleaded with sinners to be saved, to be reconciled to him through the preaching of the apostles. And so any fair reading of the Word of God will bring to the conclusion that it is God's will to save sinners out of their sin and bring them into the reconciliation of fellowship with God. And upon that ground, we have the great confidence of praying to our God that He would indeed save sinners. So that's the desire of the Saviour. It is to save souls. In the second place, note the definition of salvation that is given to us here. In verse number 4, it says, God will have all men to be saved, and here's the definition, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. Now, the word knowledge here is more than intellectual knowledge of facts. In 2 Timothy 3 and the verse number 7, Paul describes certain women, who are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. So here are some ladies who are growing in their intellectual knowledge, but have not come to know the truth. Similarly, in Romans 10, verse two, Paul describes the Jew as having a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. So they knew much about the ways of God and the word of God, but yet they did not have this knowledge of God that is manifest in those who have come to the knowledge of the truth. And so the sense here is of a saving knowledge of truth, a personal appropriation of truth. not just truth in a general sense, but truth for me, and ultimately truth which is personified in Christ, who is the truth. Hence, the knowledge of truth here involved in 1 Timothy 2 is not just a knowledge about Christ, it is a knowledge of Christ. Knowing, yes, that Christ is our Savior, but particularly that He is my Savior. Eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ, whom God has sent. And eternal life is having this fellowship with truth, fellowship with Christ. Men, by nature, are outside of the truth. They must be saved. They must come unto the knowledge of the truth. They have to come into this knowledge. Hence, we are praying for God to change the hearts of men In nature they're outside of truth, but by grace they come unto truth. And it is a matter of necessity that men come unto this truth. Verse 5 tells us there is only one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The exclusiveness of the Christian message is not the invention of the Protestant Reformation. In the context of widespread paganism, Paul is saying you must come to know the one true God and the only way to know him is through the one mediator. There is no other mediator suitable. Jesus Christ is the God-man. He is the one who came as the Son of God into this world, taking to himself a human nature, who alone can lay his hands on man and God and reconcile God to man. There is no other mediator available. He is the only one appointed by the one true and living God. We make no apologies for the exclusiveness of the Christian message. Every other way to God is a false way. There is only one God, and that one God has shown himself to save souls through the one way of salvation. Namely, he sent his son to be that one mediator between God and man. Let me read to the verse again, and let me highlight again in the reading the exclusiveness of the Christian message. For there is one God. and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The only hope that you or I have to be saved is through the work of this one mediator, and we must look to no other place for the saving of our souls. And Paul goes on to then explain, having dealt with the definition of salvation, he highlights out of this knowledge of the truth that there is the death of a substitute. We pray for all sorts of men because God desires their salvation and all sorts of men will come to acknowledge the truth. And they will do so ultimately because Christ has died to secure the salvation of all sorts of men. There is one God, one mediator, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all. Note the sacrifice in his death. He gave himself. These are the words of sacrifice. Galatians chapter 1 and the verse number 4 describes Christ who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world. Ephesians chapter 5 and the verse 25, Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. The death of Jesus Christ. In the final analysis was a death unto God. He died to satisfy divine justice. He died to appease divine wrath. We're often so man-centered that we look upon the death of Christ and think about that death and its benefit to us. And yes, that is true. But the death of Christ was a sacrifice unto God. He willingly gave himself as our substitutionary sacrifice, to satisfy divine justice and appease divine wrath, yes, so that we could be saved. The sacrifice in his death, the significance of his death, it was a ransom. who gave himself a ransom for all, redemption. It speaks of freedom that we enjoy from the bondage of sin by the payment of a price. Christ has paid the ransom price in full, nothing to be added, nothing deficient. He has paid it all on our behalf. He gave himself a ransom for all. The scope of his death is also mentioned here, who gave himself a ransom for all. I have already given indication that in light of the context, this cannot refer to all men without exception. If that were the case, none would be lost. But we see in the Word of God there is the reality of an eternal destination for those who reject the Gospel and remain in their sins. Some are lost. But what we see here in the death of Christ is he has given himself a ransom, not only for Jewish believers, but for all believers, Jews and Gentiles, male and female, young and old. He has died, he's given himself a ransom for all sorts of sinners. And so I can say to you today that if you would turn from your sins and give your life to Christ, then he has died for your sins. He has died for all the sins of all of his people so that they all will indeed be saved. His name is Jesus, for He shall, indeed, absolutely, certainly will save His people from their sins. We rejoice in the truth of the Christian gospel, that Jesus Christ did not die to make salvation possible, but He died to make the salvation of His people certain. And so we see that as Paul would address a Gentile congregation in Ephesus, he tells them the death of the Jewish Messiah is a death for all sorts of people, Jew and Gentile alike. And whoever you are today, wherever you're listening to this message, I have the tremendous privilege and pleasure of telling you of a saviour. His name is Jesus and his blood avails for sinners and his blood can avail for you today. the death of a substitute, which leads in the final place in these verses to note the declaration of the servant. We are looking at this matter of praying for all sorts of men. And we're praying for them because of the desire of the Saviour. We're praying for them because of the definition of salvation that they become to acknowledge the truth. We're praying for them because of the death of the substitute. The death of Christ is a ransom for all. But we also pray in light of the declaration of a servant. Christ's death is to be testified in due time. And Paul shows himself in verse 7. He says, for unto I am ordained a preacher. We pray for all sorts of men, but we do so in the understanding that the knowledge of the gospel goes out into the world through men who preach the gospel. The message must go to all men without exclusion. Christ, who has given himself a ransom for all sorts of men, must be proclaimed to all sorts of men. And so Paul shows that as the servant of God, he preaches the gospel. He preaches with authority. He is ordained a preacher. The word speaks of the herald. It describes the word of the king being entrusted to him. He's also an apostle. He is one sent from God. We are not apostles, but we present apostolic truth with the authority of the apostle. And so as we go into the world and share Christ, we do so not timidly, but boldly. We have the authority of God. God has shown himself to desire the salvation of sinners. And so we therefore bring the gospel boldly to sinners, believing that when they hear and believe, they shall indeed be saved. The servant preaches with authority and he teaches in sincerity. He says a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. Note that preaching the gospel is teaching the gospel. There is no difference between teaching meetings and gospel meetings. Gospel preaching is gospel teaching. Some thought, and this may be that the gospel goes for the emotions. but teaching for the mind. That's not in the Bible. We should not look as a Christian church upon the gospel message as something that seeks to hit the emotions. The Gospel message must affect the mind, and as the mind is enlightened, so the will is moved, the heart is moved, and souls come to trust in the message and, of course, in the Christ of the message. Teaching of the Gospel will involve persuasion, but the teacher must be faithful and marked by integrity. A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity, sincerity, integrity. Oh Paul, I think you'll be horrified by many in the modern evangelical world who seem to teach the gospel out of a desire for popular praise. out of a desire for prosperity and advance and growth, even out of a yielding of power. For Paul to preach the gospel was to do so because they believed the gospel. They were convinced of the gospel in their own hearts, and therefore they were determined to share that gospel with sinners. This gospel goes forward to all men without exclusion. It is God's ordained method that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And hence, for these reasons, we must pray for all sorts of men to be saved. We ought to meet together as local churches and plead for God to do as he's promised and as he has purposed. Why should you go to a church prayer meeting? Well, simply because of the gospel. because of the salvation of souls. We ought to be faithful in corporate prayer because God has showed himself to be a God who desires to save sinners and has done everything that is required to save those sinners through the coming and through the death of the Son of God. Pray that the truth used of Paul to encourage prayer would also be used to encourage faith and repentance in those who have yet to come to the knowledge of the truth. And it certainly is my concern as we finish this broadcast today, it is my concern that as you've been listening to this program, that perhaps you've never thought about the fact that you need to be saved. Perhaps you've never thought that the only way that you can be saved is through Christ Jesus alone. And perhaps today, as you hear my voice, you'd be compelled to run to Jesus, to trust in Jesus, to come to Jesus, to believe on Jesus, to receive Jesus. I can encourage you that if you come to God through Christ, God will never, ever cast you out. This gospel message is for all men, all men everywhere. And so we encourage you and we urge you in the authority of the word of God, get to Christ today and be saved. I do thank you for listening. I hope that week by week we can grow together in our knowledge of the Word of God. I encourage you again, please, get in touch and let me know if these broadcasts are being beneficial in your walk with the Lord. Let me just lead you in a closing word of prayer. Eternal God and our Father in heaven, we thank you, Lord, again that We've seen in your word that you are a God of mercy and compassion. It is your delight to show compassion to sinners. And we pray, O Lord, that all this link to this broadcast today would come unto the knowledge of the truth. Save souls and sanctify your people, we pray in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode of Let the Bible Speak from Malvern Free Presbyterian Church. If you'd like more information about the gospel or the church, please call 610-993-3170 or email malvernfpc at yahoo.com. We extend an invitation to all to join us as we worship the Lord each week. You will be made very welcome. The church is situated at 80 Mallon Road, Malvern, Pennsylvania, at the junction of 401 and Mallon Road. We meet for worship on the Lord's Day at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. A Bible study and prayer meeting is also held on Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. We preach Christ Crucified.